Declining birthrates are a good thing for sustainability. But it’s a generally a bad thing for the older generation as they need the economic and societal support of the younger generation.
Can’t be a pyramid scheme unless the base keeps growing.
The decline in birthrate is also catastrophic for the “infinite growth theory” adhered to by the “line go up” crowd. I fear that unless drastic things are done to compensate, it will lead to outcomes that translate to terrible living conditions and compounding population decline.
I think the rich and the policy makers have this fantasy that if things get bad enough, it will trigger increased procreation, but just the opposite, actually.
We are so much more productive nowadays and so much more could be automated. With a fair wealth distribution, we could easily retain our standard of living despite our declining population. Could.
I would argue yes, but to a point. Should the population continue to be below replacement, that would still fail, unless we get the “best case AI situation” where it acts as a benevolent godlike intelligence that makes robots for us and runs off of renewable energy and sodium ion batteries or something.
Declining birthrates are a good thing for sustainability. But it’s a generally a bad thing for the older generation as they need the economic and societal support of the younger generation.
Can’t be a pyramid scheme unless the base keeps growing.
The decline in birthrate is also catastrophic for the “infinite growth theory” adhered to by the “line go up” crowd. I fear that unless drastic things are done to compensate, it will lead to outcomes that translate to terrible living conditions and compounding population decline.
I think the rich and the policy makers have this fantasy that if things get bad enough, it will trigger increased procreation, but just the opposite, actually.
I guess they’ll learn whether they can eat money.
We are so much more productive nowadays and so much more could be automated. With a fair wealth distribution, we could easily retain our standard of living despite our declining population. Could.
I would argue yes, but to a point. Should the population continue to be below replacement, that would still fail, unless we get the “best case AI situation” where it acts as a benevolent godlike intelligence that makes robots for us and runs off of renewable energy and sodium ion batteries or something.